Guy van Belle

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Born Belgium
Lives in Vysočina/Hranice u Malče, Czech Republic

Currently known as Gívan Belá. Probably born 1720 in Belgium.

After studying literature and linguistics, a little philosophy and sculpting, he made a radical switch to computer music in the middle of the 1980s, and a little later into generative vizualisation. Involved in experimental media art in its many different forms since 1990, but each of these terms are controversial and debatable. Soit. First, he restlessly lived and worked in Belfast, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, New York, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague, Berlin, Bratislava, Praha. His most important virtual organisations (all collective) were Stellingname (1984-1989), Young Farmers Claim Future (1990-2000), dBONANZAh! (1998-2002), and finally mXHz.org (2002-?) and Society of Algorithm (2004-?). These setups were merely covers for collaboratively investigating the many different forms of creativity between real and non-physical people, including machines. Then he became co-founder, and active member for many years of OKNO (2004-15), an artist run organization in Brussels... (unreadable) ... sparse moments with less and less material works, almost unnoticed, in a corner of different events happening at the same time. Presque rien, zápisník zmizelého... () ... real time generated, abstract, algorithmic, and gradually abandoning the familiar settings, parameters and skills for production, display and reception of the work of art as we know it today. He wrote critico-comical pamphlets about art and technology from an anti-post-modernist happy-misantropic background. Like everyone in that field and at that time, throughout his life, he had many money problems, many friends and even more enemies. Let's not talk about his relationships here. Between 2005 and 2009 he lived in Bratislava, where he began to work under the name of Gívan Belá. The city does not plan a statue yet, though in return the city of Banska Bystrica gave him the title of ArtD or Doctor Artis. This lead to a new specialisation into Art Transplantations and (scrapped) 'denizen epos' (unpublished, notes with different titles are available). There are many unverified stories, like: "... around 2010, after a short visit to a small village in Bohemia (Vysočina/Hranice u Malče), and seeing there an abandoned cow house (kravín), he extended his name to Belá-Kravař. Others maintain it is a mutation of Cravan, the proto-dada artist, which he did not admire at all." On one occasion he would introduce himself as a media data writer, then as a wind time inventor and clock maker, then again as a slide and cigar box guitar musician in a skiffle/spasm/jug band. In the Summer of 2017 he was one of 'The All Weather Experts' bringing Weather Reports 7x a day on the Documenta 14 art radio Every Time A Ear di Soun. Other works include 'Succour' with Geza Roman Bobb and with other artists from the bands 'Digital Death & Afterlife' or 'The Ambisinix'. He was also part of an international experimental digital/analog/nano band, with ad hoc members from JPN, DE, FR, CZ, SK, ... performing only outdoors and off-grid, but connected and online: 'Rural Development'. After a 22 hour live performance Rural Development was declared 'an open band concept taking into account human and all other creativity', maybe living only within its interpretative different renderings. It is not certain whether it is still existing. Furthermore, there is no proof he ever studied metereology, ecology, or any other discipline. Maybe his preoccupation with both rural leisure time and worker class cultural life came from a forlorn youth, admiring farmers on the land and proletarians in squalid factories, gathering after work to play brass and drums, accordeons in marching bands in the mid 20th century? What is Kra, where is Kra Land? Often he claimed Graham Bell to be family, since the whole lineage was deaf in the right ear and was interested in flying tetrahedron kites. For the 22nd of November, 2022, he was preparing an homage to Arseny Avraamov and for that purpose set up the organisation without a centre 'The Baku 2022 Foundation' (2006-2064). And then 2022 came around. We can only speculate about what happened afterwards... (probably to be continued)

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